When there is a traumatic disruption of the continuity of a bone, it must be set such that there is no relative motion of the bone fragments at the fracture site during the healing process. If there is such relative movement, the surrounding tissues are irritated thus causing pain and requiting the time for fracture healing to be extended. Thus proper fixation and immobilization of bone fragments require an implant that can be molded or formed in substantially three dimensions in many cases, which is extremely difficult to accomplish. According to currently used techniques, if a mesh implant is used to cover the area of a lost craniotomy bone flap, the mesh, when formed or shaped, develops sides that overlap, turn upwardly, or create folds. Thus the current mesh systems overlap or curl when the mesh implant is shaped three dimensionally in order to adapt to a curved shape because the connecting bars or arms, that connect plate sections having orifices therein for receiving a bone screw, cannot be expanded and those at the outer edge cannot be compressed to a sufficient degree necessary to form a relatively smooth surface. Thus the overlapping edges and raised areas can cause lacerations of the overlying tissue that can result in infections.
Further, in the currently used techniques, reconstruction of the eye socket, including orbital walls, floor, and roof, is achieved with bone and alloplastic materials such as titanium plate implants to repair the defect. As an example, regular meshes or grid plates can be introduced and secured to the orbital rim with bone screws. Because of the variable radius of the eye sockets, a standard preformed implant usually will not fit precisely. The surgeon's task is to manually form the mesh implant so that the bone defect is covered in a manner such that the mesh material is formed to fit the original three-dimensional curvature of the bone. This is not achievable with conventional metal plate implants except to a limited extent with a grid plate that has separate sections or flaps that can be bent as a total section.